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An organized syndicate of conmen with no fixed abode has emerged in Beitbridge, swindles innocent vehicle seekers thousands of United States Dollars, TechMagTV can exclusively reveal.
By Tongai Mwenje
The team, allegedly with bases in both Zimbabwe and South Africa trades under the name Kings Rent to Buy Cars.
“Meet us at 692 Baobab Street, Beitbridge, Zimbabwe,” a Facebook post on their page reveals.
To lure preys, the team offers potential customers some irresistible and tempting vehicle purchase payment terms.
In one of the Facebook adverts, a second hand Nissan NP300 with registration number ADI 2413 is going for USD$5500 – which is almost the market price of a second hand Nissan NP300.
Buyers are then asked to pay a deposit of USD$600 and made to believe the vehicle will be delivered in 24 hours after payment.
According to the conmen, the balance of USD$4900 will be paid over 18 months in USD$273 monthly installments.
Payments are done via Mukuru or VISA Account and sometimes would ask you to pay cash.
To hoodwink their targeted preys, they create and circulate Facebook and WhatsApp conversations of fake successful vehicle deliveries and done deals.
In another advert shared via WhatsApp
“RENT TO BUY CARS IN ZIM 🇿🇼
Get your Dream Car By Paying 0% deposit for any fuel saver , comb , small lorries
◆Zero Deposit ( You collect your before you start your instalments)
◆Free delivery ( No delivery charges)
◆18 months installments
◆Duty paid (all duty papers are available)
◆ 2 free bonus months driving your car before start paying instalments
GROUP 0 FOR ALL CARS
https://chat.whatsapp.com/E4BpkxSTl9wAWN7qvBUgwI
GROUP 1 FOR RECENT & S/HANDS
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CcA3LpoqDEK8LxCP0ooaUn
NB NO SCAM ❗❗❗”
A group with more than 230 vehicle seekers.
In an interview with one of the victims who preferred anonymity, ” These guys are smart bro. They run consistent adverts on Facebook and WhatsApp to lure their clients. They take photos of cars I am not sure of the owners of those cars. I am one of their victims who lost out USD$600 in a Nissan NP300 deal which never materialised since I made my payment couple of months ago,” th anonymous victim revealed to this reporter.
He also added that the scammers normally target unsuspecting victims from outside Beitbridge.
” I only came to realise there were conmen through suspicious comments on their Facebook page well after i have already been duped. One funny thing they don’t deal with people from Beitbridge, if you ask people in Beitbridge they tell you they don’t know them yet they use Beitbridge address,” he added.
A quick investigation prove that they use existing addresses without the knowledge of the owner.
The investigation also show that a lot of desperate vehicle seekers have fallen victim of these conmen.
Effort to get a comment from Beitbridge CID department who are said to be investigating the matter were fruitless after we couldn’t go through their numbers at the time of publishing.
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